In known arrangements a receiver vessel is manoeuvred alongside the buoy or platform and the fluid transfer hose passed from one to the other. This may be a hazardous and difficult operation in an open sea particularly in the extreme climatic conditions which frequently prevail. Although the hose transfer may be effected by use of a picket boat, for example, as a shuttle or messenger between buoy or platform and the receiving ship, this is a manual operation and crewmen may be at considerable risk. It is therefore highly desirable at least partly to automate the process of achieving fluid flow connection between the two.
One means of achieving this is described in our co-pending patent application 8518001 which teaches an arrangement for effecting such transfer at sea including interconnection means through which fluid flow can take place comprising a probe and a probe receiver being capable of engagement or disengagement to effect fluid transfer via a hose, one part of the interconnecting means being mounted upon the platform or buoy and the other part being carried by an at least partially space-stabilized gantry means, bow or stern mounted upon the receiver vessel. In that arrangement the receiver vessel can be temporarily placed in an engagement position adjacent to the platform and interconnecting parts automatically aligned to effect engagement, the extendable hose being paid out as the vessel then moves away from the platform to a more convenient position, the interconnection means remaining engaged to allow fluid transfer.